Permanent Exhibition Haus der Geschichte

If 1,000 years are one day, then 10,000 years are one hour! The Haus der Geschichte’s permanent exhibition lets you decide for yourself how quickly you move through time, and choose your own route according to what interests you most. You can familiarize yourself in no time at all with the most important historical events in Lower Austria’s history in relation to its neighboring regions. However, you can also select specific topic areas in the exhibition or gaze at the many - some never before shown - rarities from Lower Austria’s collections and try out the different educational offerings: interactive stations, forums on topical debates or a visitors’ parliament.

The permanent exhibition forms the central part of the Haus der Geschichte. It presents Lower Austria’s history in both its Austrian and central European context/relationships in an exciting, contemporary way and with strong reference to current societal developments. Thus, in the sense of an “Exhibition in Progress”, the latest research findings and current events will regularly be incorporated.

Thematic, longitudinal sections constitute important design and structural elements. Their aim is to provide an opportunity to engage in detail with specific historical aspects and to extensively examine these for any discontinuities and contradictions. The advantage is that developments are not perceived as isolated but interconnected events, even if they sometimes don’t proceed at the same time. Emphasis is placed on factors that reverberate to the present day and that lend themselves to raising awareness of current political, economic or societal situations.

This is why the permanent exhibition is not structured strictly according to epochs, years or dates. Rather, it is based on themes and questions that still preoccupy us as much today as they did people many centuries ago: how territories were settled, how they came by their administration, why immigration and emigration are not modern phenomena, how and why some people and groups were able to exert power over others and how this power was challenged again and again, what feeling of belonging is behind the creation of regions, ethnic groups and nations, how technical inventions over the centuries have changed society. In the last third of the tour, the spotlight is on the political conflicts and excesses of totalitarian power in the first half of the 20th century, but also on the most significant technical, social and political achievements since the end of the Second World War. The permanent exhibition closes with a view on the near future, namely the central European community and Lower Austria’s – and Austria’s – role in it.